Main
Taylor Dunn
I have made visualizations viewed by hundreds of thousands of people, sped up query times for 25 terabytes of data by an average of 4,800 times, and built packages for R that let you do magic.
Education
M.Sc., Physics
Dalhousie University
Halifax, NS
2016 - 2014
- Thesis: Image Segmentation and Modelling of Host-Pathogen Dynamcis of Salmonella. Full text.
B.Sc., Physics, Honours (minor Mathematics)
University of Prince Edward Island
Charlottetown, PE
2014 - 2009
- Thesis: Studying Polymer Translocation with Dissipative Particle Dynamics and Monte Carlo Simulations. Full text.
Experience
Biostatistician
Ardea Outcomes
Halifax, NS
current - 2017
- Worked on global clinical trials and patient-centered research across multiple disease areas.
- Assisted in study design, including the development of study protocols, statistical analysis plans, and data management plans.
- Performed data collection, analysis, reporting, and interpretation. Aided in database maintenance and monitoring.
- Conducted research in patient-centric outcomes, resulting in several peer-reviewed publications and presentations for scientific meetings and industry clients.
- Led internal project management to ensure tasks are completed according to timelines. Communicated professionally with external stakeholders throughout projects.
- Developed internal R software for effective, reproducible, and well-documented workflows.
Teaching Assistant
Dalhousie University, Department of Physics and Atmospheric Science
Halifax, NS
2015 - 2014
- Course: Introduction to Numerical Programming.
- Aided undergraduate Physics students in exploring and modelling physical systems in Python.
- Ran weekly tutorial sessions and marked assignments.
- Gave lectures when the professor was absent.
Undergraduate Researcher
University of Prince Edward Island, Department of Physics
Charlottetown, PE
2014 - 2011
- Worked in a computational physics lab under supervision of a senior faculty member.
- Developed software in C and C++ to simulate molecules and perform data analysis.
- Presented results in various settings and formats (posters, presentations, papers).
Help Centre Tutor
University of Prince Edward Island
Charlottetown, PE
2014 - 2011
- Ran weekly tutorial sessions where students would come for assistance in various subjects (physics, calculus, statistics, etc.).
Laboratory/Teaching Assistant
University of Prince Edward Island
Charlottetown, PE
2012 - 2010
- Assisted with student instruction, equipment setup and marking of undergraduate physics labs.
Selected Data Science Writing
I regularly blog about data science and visualization on my blog LiveFreeOrDichotomize.
Using AWK and R to Parse 25tb
LiveFreeOrDichotomize.com
N/A
2019
- Story of parsing large amounts of genomics data.
- Provided advice for dealing with data much larger than disk.
- Reached top of HackerNews.
The United States of Seasons
LiveFreeOrDichotomize.com
N/A
2018
- GIS analysis of weather data to find the most ‘seasonal’ locations in United States
- Used Bayesian regression methods for smoothing sparse geospatial data.
A year as told by fitbit
LiveFreeOrDichotomize.com
N/A
2017
- Analyzing a full years worth of second-level heart rate data from wearable device.
- Demonstrated visualization-based inference for large data.
MCMC and the case of the spilled seeds
LiveFreeOrDichotomize.com
N/A
2017
- Full Bayesian MCMC sampler running in your browser.
- Coded from scratch in vanilla Javascript.
The Traveling Metallurgist
LiveFreeOrDichotomize.com
N/A
2017
- Pure javascript implementation of traveling salesman solution using simulated annealing.
- Allows reader to customize the number and location of cities to attempt to trick the algorithm.
Selected Publications
Building a software package in tandem with machine learning methods research can result in both more rigorous code and more rigorous research
ENAR 2020
N/A
2020
- Invited talk in Human Data Interaction section.
- How and why building an R package can benefit methodological research
Stochastic Block Modeling in R, Statistically rigorous clustering with rigorous code
RStudio::conf 2020
N/A
2020
- Invited talk about new sbmR package.
- Focus on how software development and methodological research can improve both benefit when done in tandem.
PheWAS-ME: A web-app for interactive exploration of multimorbidity patterns in PheWAS
Bioinformatics
N/A
2020
- Manuscript detailing application for the exploration of multimorbidity patterns in PheWAS analyses
- See landing page for more information.
The Symptoms Targeted for Monitoring in a Web-Based Tracking Tool by Caregivers of People With Dementia and Agitation: Cross-Sectional Study
Journal of Medical Internet Research
N/A
2019
- Authors: Rockwood, K., Sanon Aigbogun, M., Stanley, J., Wong, H., Dunn, T., Chapman, C. A. T., Howlett, S. E., Miguelez, M., McGarrigle, L., & Baker, R. A.
Charge Reductions Associated with Shortening Time to Recovery in Septic Shock
Chest
N/A
2019 - 2019
- Authored with Wesley H. Self, MD MPH; Dandan Liu, PhD; Stephan Russ, MD, MPH; Michael J. Ward, MD, PhD, MBA; Nathan I. Shapiro, MD, MPH; Todd W. Rice, MD, MSc; Matthew W. Semler, MD, MSc.
Multimorbidity Explorer | A shiny app for exploring EHR and biobank data
RStudio::conf 2019
N/A
2019 - 2019
- Contributed Poster. Authored with Yaomin Xu.
Taking a network view of EHR and Biobank data to find explainable multivariate patterns
Vanderbilt Biostatistics Seminar Series
N/A
2019 - 2019
- University wide seminar series.
Patient-specific risk factors independently influence survival in Myelodysplastic Syndromes in an unbiased review of EHR records
Under-Review (copy available upon request.)
N/A
2019
- Bayesian network analysis used to find novel subgroups of patients with Myelodysplastic Syndromes (MDS).
- Analysis done using method built for my dissertation.
Patient specific comorbidities impact overall survival in myelofibrosis
Under-Review (copy available upon request.)
N/A
2019
- Bayesian network analysis used to find robust novel subgroups of patients with given genetic mutations.
- Analysis done using method built for my dissertation.
R timelineViz: Visualizing the distribution of study events in longitudinal studies
Under-Review (copy available upon request.)
N/A
2018 - 2018
- Authored with Alex Sunderman of the Vanderbilt Department of Epidemiology.
Continuous Classification using Deep Neural Networks
Vanderbilt Biostatistics Qualification Exam
N/A
2017 - 2017
- Review of methods for classifying continuous data streams using neural networks
- Successfully met qualifying examination standards
Declines of Mysis diluviana in the Great Lakes
Journal of Great Lakes Research
N/A
2015 - 2015
- Authored with Peter Euclide and Jason Stockwell.
Evaluating the Applicability of the Fokker-Planck Equation in Polymer Translocation: A Brownian Dynamics Study.
Journal of Chemical Physics
N/A
2014
- Authors: James Polson and Taylor Dunn. PDF.
Selected Posters, and Presentations
Conformational correlation times for a tethered polymer
UPEI Science Undergraduate Research Conference
University of Prince Edward Island
2011